Agrium to Buy UAP for $2.65 Billion

5:49 AM MST | December 12, 2007 | Nancy Seewald

Agrium says it has agreed to acquire UAP Holding (Dorchester, ONT), a distributor of agriculture chemicals, fertilizers, and related products for approximately $2.65 billion, including about $487 million in assumed debt. Agrium will launch a tender offer to purchase all of UAP’s common stock for $39/share in an all-cash transaction. The acquisition price represents a 30% premium over UAP’s closing price of $29.61/share on November 30, and is approximately 12 times UAP’s Ebitda of $226 million, analysts say. UAP has annual sales of $3.2 billion...